TEMECULA: City looking at legality of a vendor preference program

TEMECULA ---- The city is looking to see if it can create a
program that would give local vendors some sort of leg up in
bidding for city contracts.

"We're trying to see what we can do with the legal parameters to
give a preference to local vendors," said Councilwoman Maryann
Edwards, a member of the council's Finance Committee.

The committee, which also includes Councilman Mike Naggar, is
scheduled to discuss the idea during a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday
at City Hall, 43200 Business Park Drive. Edwards said the proposal
was inspired by a desire to help Temecula businesses and their
local employees.

Some public agencies have similar vendor programs. For instance,
Fresno County allows local vendors who are not the low bidder on a
particular project to meet or beat the low bid if their original
bid was within 5 percent of the low bid.

In Murrieta, with the exception of public works projects, all
local vendors have their bids shaved by 3 percent to give them a
boost compared with outside vendors.